Where Have We Been? Attending NIH Advisory Council Meetings

National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council – National Institute of General Medical Services – 1/27/17

The first quarterly NIGMS advisory council meeting of 2017 was held Jan. 26 – 27 with an open session held on the 27th. The council meeting was led by NIGMS Director Jon Lorsch and covered upcoming program changes and events.

Highlights from the meeting are below.

On April 5, NIGMS will be hosting its Early Career Investigator Lecture. Targeted to undergraduates, the lecture series seeks to provide information to students interested in pursuing careers in biomedical research.

The Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award program is expanding. The program, now out of the pilot phase, will begin to separate early investigators from established ones during the review process. Established investigators will be reviewed by the NIH Center for Scientific Review and early investigators will be reviewed within NIGMS. You can view the current FAQs here.

Kay Lund, director of the Division of Biomedical Research Workforce, gave a presentation on what her division is working on in regards to issues that affect trainees and the retention of clinical researchers. Lund also highlighted two new online resources: a career development portal and a website that focuses on data and strategies to promote diversity.

Additionally, the council approved the implementation of the following NIGMS concepts:

The National Institutes of Health Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives held its triannual Council of Councils meeting on Jan. 27 at the NIH main campus in Bethesda, Md. Topics at this council meeting included the utility of Common Fund data sets, approaches in diversifying the professoriate, NIH perspectives on enhancing scientific rigor and reproducibility, a review of the NIH’s Office of Disease Prevention’s FY14-18 strategic plan, how the NIH is transitioning to data science, and peer-review and study-section design. A detailed agenda, as well as PDF files of presentations can be found here.

We will provide meeting minutes/recording links when they become available.